Since almost all of us are using LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or some other platform for networking I think this article will cover the basics of benefits and experience of developing a network. In this article I will cover the following:  

  1. What is networking? 
  2. How to start? 
  3. My personal experience of the benefits
  4. Want to know more?

What is networking? 

When talking about networking what comes to my mind is the English proverb “It’s not what you know but who you know”. In simple terms networking means connecting with people. You can connect with people online as well as offline. The offline method is becoming a traditional and ancient method due to the advancement of online methods. Traditionally we connect with people during club get togethers, alumni get togethers, or office parties and many other avenues. With the boom of the internet nowadays you don’t need to go out and socialize to get connected to people. Simply signing in or creating a profile is sufficient to get connected to any person you want. LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and twitter all these platforms allow you to interact and connect with professionals from your and outside of your profession, and even beyond borders.  Practice of business networking has become famous due to businesses are trying to generate business by referral (Ivan and Morgan 2000). However according to Iacobucci (Dawn 1996) Measuring performance in networks is hard due to the problems of comparing one network with another. Networking is a form of interaction between actors and organizations, large and small, with firms engaging in networking activities (Nitin and Eccles 1992).

How to start? 

So, the first thing you should know is that there is no Standard Style of networking. Instead, you will see that different approaches may be worked out by different people. You have to try various approaches to identify which suits you the best. Depending on your profession you will be having different networking circles. For example: if you are into academia, ResearchGate, academia.edu, LinkedIn, and Google Scholar are the most common ones, while for professionals, LinkedIn, Meetup, Xing, Bark, Opportunity and many other. The most recent networking platform that I was drawn to was Clubhouse. Having a smartphone allows you to connect with the world’s best start-up pitchers, entrepreneurs, or anything you like and listen to them. I liked this platform over the most conventional ones because in this you can interact with people in real-time and talk to them or listen to them. It was amazing how you can interact with really leading people in a particular area directly without any appointments.  

So first you have to identify which professional body you want to get connected to. Being an extroverted personality, I love networking and it was kind of a normal routine for me to join different groups, interact with posts and follow leaders in my field and learn many things from these networking communities. This helped me to connect with various people from different industries and form new relationships from a very young age. As long as you list your interests and add information to your profile these platforms will provide you with suggestions and people with whom you might be interested to get connected. There is a “filtering” service on LinkedIn that enables you to identify the most relative connections which would give you an additional value. Then you must be active and follow up with the new connections by invites/ requests with a personalized message. As we are human beings who would like to socialize at some point, we have to meet with your connections face to face. Not 100 percent virtual networking will give you the following benefits and experiences.  

Since I’m interested in crypto currency and blockchain, I’m a part of the networking communities that are related to those. These crypto communities consist of people with a shared interest in cryptocurrency investing. This networking provides an avenue where investors share news, exchange ideas or opinions, or ask questions.  They’re usually formed and maintained via popular online messaging platforms like discord.

My Personal Experience of the Benefits

Nohria and Eccles mention three main reasons behind the increased interest networking. The new competition of small entrepreneurial firms seeking a competitive advantage by intra-firm collaboration is the first reason. The second reason is the advancement of technology which has enabled novel information technologies which made possible an entirely new set of opportunities to market, brand and to organize their internal operations. Lastly, the academic and knowledge gained can be identified as main reasons (Nitin and Eccles 1992). I kind of touched upon some of the benefits in the previous section. But here I will summarize the main benefits and experiences I see from networking.